Good evening and welcome to the special commission meeting for July. Yep. Thank you. I'm probably loud enough as it is. But good evening and welcome to the special commission meeting for July 17, 2025.
I'd like to call this meeting to order. Now, if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. City clerk, please call the role. Commissioner Clark, here. Vice Mayor Vasquez, here. Commissioner Sison, here. Commissioner Dicki here. Mayor Doctor here. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we are going to uh to move
right in to uh public comments for non-aggenda items. I don't believe that I have any paperwork for non-aggenda items. So, we'll close the public communications uh and comments and we will move right
on to our item of business. D1 fiscal year 2026 city tenative budget and millillage presentation. Can I have a motion called please? Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. She was
it was I move to adopt the tenative millage rate for the fiscal year 2026 budget at here thought we were discussing first do you want me to do the presentation and then at the end you you do the
motion because you you will have better information to recommend a rate of yes okay we can do That perfect. Okay, please. Do I need to resend my motion? No. No.
Okay, got it. Want to make sure. Is this on? Yeah. So, good evening uh commissioners, mayor, city manager, city attorney, and city clerk. Thank you for the opportunity to be here presenting. Uh this is the tentative millh
presentation. So if you have any question during the presentation please uh don't hesitate to ask me. Uh first of all I want to say why we are here. Uh per Florida statue we have uh we are required to have three
meetings. One is the uh to adopt the tentative millage because we have to inform the property appraiser or of our intention as a city by August 1st. Let's say we default on this. If we defer on this, what the property appraiser is
going to do, they're going to put by default the roll back rate which is higher than the current rate. We don't want that. So that's why we're it's important to have this meeting. I believe we have another meeting on the calendar uh in copper next week. But if we adopt a tentative millage today, we
we can cancel that meeting because that's a makeup meeting just in case we we don't agree today. So, so we have deadline July 29 to fill out the DR420 and August 18, the property appraiser
will mail the three notice to the property owners. Uh September 3 to September 18, we have to do the first hearing uh to certify the budget and then in the second hearing we adopt the budget. So
we recommend the budget and we adopt this is core tentative millage. So uh by default is tentative budget as well. So going to start with some high level economical and operational challenges that uh us and every coastal community
in Florida is having. Uh employee recruiting and retention, labor shortage, uh labor and material cost inflation, market instability, interest rates, h natural disasters, property values, uh market manpower available to
complete the projects because sometimes we have the will but there's not enough manpower uh to complete projects. uh and funding uh capacities. So the main sections of of the budget is the business operations and this is to
maintain all levels of service uh capital improvement plan which is just to invest back to the community and the depth service. Uh the executive summary uh the total net budget is $28.5 million but this is
is the cost of personal and operation uh also the depth service it doesn't include the capital uh improvement projects. So the investment in the community is uh for 2026 is 17 millions. Now the 17 millions of CIP includes uh
the budget of 2026 plus what is already in the in the plan from previous years. So this is just to give you an an um I'm going to start with the end where uh the budget the total budget is $47 million. Now this is not for this year.
This also includes the carry forward uh from from last year of projects that CIP. We we're estimating 17 millions of CIP that is included in this uh final budget. So this is how we are distributing the budget in different
programs. So I'm going to just leave it there for a minute if somebody has any question. But this is a very high level how how the money is is distributed. Uh I'm going to turn but if I'm going too fast and commissioner wants to keep looking at any slide just please let me know.
So now we are going to the capital improvement plan. So this is uh again how we are distributing the CIP by program. So I'm just going to uh leave it for for a minute. You see the the majority of uh
the the larger is infrastructure and this mostly is coming from general fund and then wastewater which is enterprise fund. Enterprise means that it gets the revenue from rates. So it uh and then this is the same CIP but
designed by fund. So you see that the general fund is is paying for the majority of the CIP projects. storm water uh solid waste waste water there or enterprise funds that they don't consume the the ad baloring or
general fund money. Okay. And this is the budget uh CIP budget for 2026 and this is the top 10 uh projects. Now um this needs to tie with the strategic plan and the commission's
priorities. Uh the commission can at any time change the priorities and and let us know what projects they want to add or fund or unfund from from this list. So, as you see, there is a side note
there. Um, it's something that I don't want to talk about it, but we have to. Uh, the the public safety building is not in the budget at all. Uh, it could be included in the CIP plan, but it's not in the budget. So, when
when in September when we approve the budget, we are approving for CIP two things. One is the five-year plan, but we're only budgeting for 2026 and prior years. So 2027 and four is not budgeted. Right,
Victor? All all of these, just to make sure everybody understands, all of these capital improvement projects here are ones that have been budgeted in this current fiscal year, and we're just carrying forward these into 2026. Correct. I There's nothing new. There's nothing new
on here that hasn't been discussed and and hashed out by either this commission or previous commissions. Correct. But but as you said, anything on anything on here because we haven't spent it is is can be changed if if this commission decides if if they change their mind or
priorities because different commission you can with a three two vote we can unfund a a project or fund another one. Thank you. What we cannot do is that let's say we have $5 million for the master pump leave station, right? So there's a new
project coming in and we cannot say let's use this money. We cannot do that. What we have to do is unfund this first and fund the other one and then we can use the money for that one project. All right. Thank you. Are these numbers here like the latest numbers? Like are these what Gary thinks
he can build the master list station for and things like that? Yeah, I would say that after September, after you approve the the whole because I believe we we're going to have a deeper uh CIP meeting workshop budget that I will include the the capital improvement plan. But when
you when you approve a CIP plan for the 2026 column of the CIP, it's not it's not only you are approving the budget, it's almost a mandate. So you are telling us to go ahead and proceed with those projects. So that's how CIP
should should work. So it's you are approving the budget, but you is a mandate for for us to to go ahead. And just one other question on that list, the solid waste side loader, that's something we still need even if we were to out outsource the trash.
So if you outsour the solid waste, that's that's another discussion. I don't think you need this project, but I have to budget as as is because uh what what we do is that we take this money back to the enterprise fund.
Well, what's interesting when you when you put it that way, uh some of the carry forward it one of the carry forward items that's not on there, and I and I'm glad that it's not on there, but it was $830,000 for uh two new garbage uh uh trucks that
that had been on our capital improvement plan before and it's not on here. Uh so I'm not sure why that would have been taken off if we're still waiting on the final financial numbers to make the the final decision on outsourcing uh solid waste.
So same thing I I will assume that if we continue doing the service in house we we can rediscuss if we need two additional trucks and put it back. But I believe uh and this is what I believe I'm not positive that in a previous board meeting it was said that we should
just take it and don't bring it back. So, we took it out of the CIP plan. I may be wrong on that interpretation, but I mean, I think that was the intent, but we hadn't uh again, until we finalize whether we're going to outsource or not, we we weren't prepared to do that. But
anyway, I I don't want to hold your presentation up. I just noticed that was not on here. Yeah, I like the interactive conversation. Uh, okay. So now I bring the public safety building because I I took it out of this slide but then now I I I bring it and
and this is some cons considerations that I think are important but this is me only one pleasure I have to add here in the consideration or the considerations that the commission may have about this building. So it's just a couple of thing to think about it is are
we going to do a combined uh building fire and police or we're going to do a fire dedicated building. So about the cost estimate and and I put it here in bold and and that this is without feature writing quote and this is my my
best guess. I'm not an an engineer but if I want to talk about depth service after I have to guess a cost so I'm guessing 8 to12 million an estimate is a is a guess. So I I I we have to consider that the
difference between a combined building and a fire dedicated building cost could be minimal and the annual payment difference could be very minimal as well. So uh when when the time comes that we're quoting I think we should take all of this in consideration and I be I'd be happy to help uh taking a
dedic educated decision uh grants insurance proceed this light when I created this budget I had to have a cut day that was the estimates but as of today we had received $4.9 million of uh disaster losses and
also $500,000 of flooding insurance money and like 83,000 for vehicle. So for the to total of 6.46 $6.5 million. Yeah. I guess I just disagree with that one bullet. I mean the difference
between uh could be minimal. I mean the debt service on three million or $4 million to me is is is somewhat substantial. I mean I I don't know how we can say that it's it's it's a minimal. I mean that that that's that that just doesn't add up to me. But
so so I'm happy for the disagreement because I've been wrong before. So that's why I I don't like to to guess. I I like to have educated and official estimates when we're talking about financial. So well and I mean we we had we have an
estimate. I mean it's what they put together. It's 12,600 square four uh 12,64 square f feet at 850, you know, dollars per square foot. And it was $10 million is what they what
they had. And that's going from an 8500 ft building to a 12,64t building. So an increase of like 50%. Huh. Would you pass that to me? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And
so yeah, we need to have as much information as we can to to have a educated decision at the end of the day. So again the the building could be uh where 10 millions is inside my estimate 8 to 12. So
now let's pass to talk about death service in case we have to get a loan to to build this building. Victor, hold on just because I don't want us proceeding with incorrect information here. uh the numbers that Commissioner Clark just mentioned, he said we're going from an 84 8,500 ft
facility to a 12,600 ft facility. I don't think that's correct. I think the the new uh facility, the 12,600 was only like 1,000 square ft more than the old combination of fire and police station that we had
before. Uh ple uh the chief of police is back there. Uh, Chief Barkley, do you am I correct in stating that or not with me personally? Hold Chief. Again, I know from the sheet that they so if it's
wrong, it's wrong. But I I Okay. No, let's just get some clarification on that. I have my budget numbers with me. I do not have the square footage of the old facility, but the new facility was about 1,000 ft more than police and fire combined. Okay. From what I remember, and I don't want to guess, Commissioner Clark, but I think the 8,500 of what you're talking
about was the fire bays and the fire station itself, not including the police. The police facility was about 3,000 square feet. Unless, and again, I'm going on on memory on that. Okay. Thank you. I can get you exact numbers at any time.
I just have my budget, but not the what we're trying to do today, but I just did more. Understood. Okay. Thank you. I understand that the my my new supervisor, the city manager, one of his priorities is to get the the project rolling. So, we're going to be getting
as much information as possible, make the estimates of each and make all the numbers of each. Okay. Thank you. For the board to take a decision. Now, in order to to do that in the current budget as presented, we we don't have the money. So uh and we will not be
having a balanced budget if we include that in in the CIP for 2026. So I'm assuming that if we are going to go ahead and and build a building, we we need the 10% design fees and at least half of it for 2026 and then the other half for 2027. But if we're going to get
a loan, we we're going to get one loan and and have the the proceeds on the bank making interest for two years to to avoid having two loans. So this is uh talking about depth service. This is how the interest has
been moving the last year and this is justformational. This is out of our control. It's just uh for you to to understand how how it's moving. And then the spread on the on the base uh points which is the the spread from the interest rate that the Fed has been very
very high 26 38 57 base points. So uh this is uh the way um using the source bond buyer this is national. So this is uh how municipalities are spending money. This is uh the the black to the top are uh inflows and the red to
the bottom are outflows. So in the last couple of months has been a lot of spending and it's because all the inflation that are occurring in the market and this is mostly CIP and because of that the the what
municipalities are getting are borrowing and this is a is is higher every year and sometimes it's not because they have more projects as because some of these project CIP has been raising 50 100% 10 and and again this is justformational so
so you know how the market is moving. So now we're talking about specifically Treasure Island. Uh this is our outstanding debt. So if you see we have one loan for uh that
we own only 653 on princip so far. So, we're going to be done in 2027 is going to be our last payment of that that one loan. So, that loan, if we're going to refinance, I don't want to to that loan because it's going to be paid off in two years. So, if if I'm going to refinance
something and put it together with a new loan, I will refinance the the the second loan. The I'd asked this question at previous meetings and I don't think we ever got the answer to it. is the the interest rates on those two loans. Uh would you happen to know what they are? And and
the only reason I I ask is my recollection is that they're very low. They're like a 2.75% or something like that. So the problem with combining one of these loans with the 4 a.5% loan. I mean that's fairly clear. So you so you may want to just consider because the interest rate on this is so low is
leaving this one alone. So So you are 100% correct. So if we when we do the analysis uh that we're going to pay way more we are not going to do it. The the only uh benefit to refinance even with higher but it has to
be slight higher interest rate is h for cash flow purposes like let's say paying $ 1.5 million versus 900,000 yearly. So that that would be the only benefit. But based on on the timing that these loans were acquired, I
I'm 85% sure the interest is lower. But I'm going to get the intro for next meeting uh to you. Thank you. Okay. So this is the cost of a new loan based on estimate and current market conditions and this is a $10 million. So
I have the numbers for 15, 20 and 25 years. So if we were going to get this loan today, I would recommend the board to go for the 20 years because uh if you compare 15 years to 20 years,
uh we get a annual saving on on cash flow of over 100,000. Now that when you compare 10 15 versus uh 20 versus 25, you only get a benefit of like $80,000. So my my just looking
at these numbers, I would prefer the 20 years uh period for for a for a loan. I definitely like the lower cash outflow. Uh but it's the difference in total uh
interest paid on a on the uh 15-year loan is is uh is 3.875 million versus 5.64 million on a 20-year loan. So, we're paying another $2 million roughly in interest by going the extra five
years. So, that's why I mean we can talk about this when when when it's approp but but for to save uh what the only $143,000 a year in debt service payment. Uh I don't see that as a good trade-off,
but again, that's a topic for future discussion. I I when the time comes I I need to talk to the city attorney because uh we have a charter who limits the way we we get borrow and so the way we have to do it based on the charter I
believe is that we we have to provide a bit for for the banks to answer but in that bid I I want them to uh provide multiple options because uh some uh penalty-free options are more expensive but but then you can repay Another thing
in the long run that I want to do is to make this city ready in the structure to go for bonds which are usually cheaper than than loans. Right now we don't have the structure to to get bonds but uh I I believe we we have to take a look at at those uh
structures. Um so does this match your numbers commissioner clerk that that you had? My numbers were well my numbers were from yeah 1200 building
that's so yeah and Ardan it clearly says on here that the current existing police and fire area 8525 and 12,604
is the do and the increase is 4,79. So this is straight from the city. So if I'm if it's wrong, I'm I'm reading I I I can read numbers. So I mean if it's this is wrong. Okay. All right. We we'll get clarification. I I've heard Chief Bar
say multiple times it was only the difference of about a thousand square foot. Uh so if it's So let's let's get that cleared up later. Okay. So, I think what I think what we need to do is figure out what we could really build, you know, either a combined building or just a fire station and what
it could really be built for and it from what in talking to Gary, I think a lot of this stuff could be built for less than what we're talking about and then maybe it makes a lot of these numbers a lot better looking. You know, that's that's why is important to get one estimate. Yes, sir. If I could, mayor, if if I
could just have a little bit of time, build lots and lots of buildings with public money, I'd like to bring you guys back a couple of courses of actions with recommendations and and get going. But, um, okay. You know, that that that won't happen in the month of August. If I'm bold, um,
I'll have you something in September. That would be wonderful. Good. Okay. So now we we're going to we we discussed like um operational expenses high level we discussed CIP but now let's talk about revenues and I left it
for LA because this is what we are intending to approve today. So the revenues uh the this is just I'm going to go through a couple of slice slides and this is uh just general fund because that's what we are approving today. So,
and other taxes 2025 we lost a lot of revenue in almost all revenue sources uh because of the storm. So, somebody has any questions about any specific revenue just let let me know. This one I'm going to just leave it for
a little bit because this is what is affecting uh the millage and we uh we we have a millage today of 3.8129 8129 and this is uh actual revenues
25 estimates because we're not over and 2026 uh budget or projections and your uh your estimates are based on information you got from the uh Panelis County Property Appraisers. Correct.
Correct. So that's why you see about 600,000 on revenue uh loss for for tax value going down and this is estimating it as current rate. So when we take a look at this I
understand this is ablorum taxes correct and basically it says that we're going to be close to $600,000 short. Um, how does the insurance money that we're getting play into? I know it's it's a
little bit convoluted because it's not a revenue source, but it is your mic's not on. Money still is coming in. Correct. So, if you compare it, I'll I will remember to do this sooner or later. Oh, mine's still on.
I do. So, let let me It's more complicated like that. Like let's say we we got $5 million of insurance money as I said previously five 5.4 now if you add that to the 10 millions that you you can say hey we got 50
million so last year was 11 millions but but you cannot consider like that because we're not taking consideration here the expenses that that probably are higher than the $5 millions that that we we incur like the public safety building uh it's it's a it's not apple with
apple. So we have we will have to do an an a larger analysis and put there the expenses uh of everything we have to fix because of the hurricane. Correct. I I understand. That's what I said with the ad war.
You know that's 23% of what the property tax is and uh but that money's got to be made whole somewhere. Correct. Correct. Hey, I did it again. Yeah. So, everybody
at home, I'm sorry. It's this is only the second meeting that we're actually on, off on off. I I have a question. So, that's a 5.5% decrease that that the the tax revenue,
right? Um I you know, I had heard that you know 8% and then I had heard was it Ardan I think you know Santael said like 10, right? Right. So, are we comfortable with the 5.5% number one? And then number two, I've also heard that, and I
guess we're only talking about 26 now, but 27 could be even worse. Are we factoring all that in? So 27 if we even keep still have property taxes because right now Dantis is talking about
property taxes and that's a conversation that that it could could affect our revenues and it's not something that I want to discuss because we don't have control of that but if you want if we want to project two years it's going to be harder like sometimes in one year we
can get it right because the property taxes values are not official until I believe August 8th. Well, no, I get it. But the hurricane is what's affecting this and all of the properties that are, you know, the the decrease in the in the cost of the properties and the fact
that, you know, whether the new places will be built or not. I mean, that that to me that's what's causing the the variability that we're going to see. And I mean, it could that that's difference between 5% 10% that's it's it's material in my mind. And then if 27 is going to
be worse and that's you know maybe it won't be but yeah Mike has a comment. I just wanted to clarify the uh the estimate for or the projection for 26 we got the we projected to go down in
property value by 5.6% 6% and that came directly from uh Mike Twitty at the property appraisers office. So it's not eight, it's not originally I had personally I had about 8% in but once we
got the number in from from Mr. Twitty at 5.6 that's what we locked in on. Okay. And I I do believe that that that may vary one more time. If if does I I hope is is to the good. But why do we believe that uh that we're
going to see the advorum taxes go down in 2027 once again? Yeah. Stand up and give me the cues. But uh why do we believe that we are going to have less adorum taxes in 2027?
I I don't I don't know yet. I'm projecting 26. He didn't want to he didn't want to predict that. I I I don't have the the Okay. Cuz from what I understand that the appraisers's office uh basically does believe that
we'll be recovering in 2027. I can't tell you if that's 5% 8% whatever it is but the ablum taxes uh you know and the revenue will probably continue to go up that bar is depends who you ask and for
2027 what some people has been talking about market correction uh like like some people are saying that we are currently in a bubble similar to the 2007 seven. So I don't know how the
market will will react like the United States experts has been wrong on that. That's why I don't project two years from today because a lot of things can happen and I don't have the data to I actually think I got that from I mean Mike and I talked a long time ago and it's probably been updated but
originally it was like they thought it was going to be like a two-year downturn before it went back up and maybe that's been changed now by Twitty. I don't I don't know but Okay. Okay. So, this is a permits and fees.
Uh I I looked at this one and I think we're going to recover a lot more on uh permits and fees. I think we're going to be at least back to uh to the levels that we were in 2023 and 24 if not more.
Uh but anyway, I'm not and I'm not suggesting you change anything for the purposes of this meeting, but as we as we refine the budget going forward, there's there's at least 50,000 uh dollars uh maybe 80,000 that you could safely add to add to that budget
for next year. And remember, this is a tentative budget. We we still have time to uh make exactly corrections. And I know this is not a budget review. I'm just Yes. making an observation. and I I'm hearing everything that that commissioners are
asking and commenting. So to to do a better presentation, thank you. We got rid of TMM. We could probably double that, probably 1.6 million because the houses would go up so much faster. Okay, next slide is intergovernmental. So you you see this big uh revenue in
2024 that was the ARP grant, American Rescue Plan. So we got $3 million in 2024. So that's why you see a a big jump there. And this is charges for services. This is another one that I I thought was
uh estimated for next year pretty low. Uh cuz for five months in 2025, we didn't charge anything for parking revenues. Uh so we lost uh we lost a lot of money and we'll be charging for parking uh even at the current rate. Uh
we're with this this account you could probably add as much as $300,000 without raising parking rates at all. It's just I think it's just under budgeted but again I know you said we have time to make some adjustments. This is one thing we'll take a second one area if you take
a second look at that. Yes. these fines and same thing here again because it went down significantly. This is uh I'm talking here mostly about parking buying revenue. Uh it went down substantially because we didn't enforce parking for 5
months following the hurricane during 2025. So that should be uh popping back up to uh the levels of of 2024. So there's there's some probably another 100,000 uh revenue potential uh budget uh
consideration here. It is my understanding that we lowered our the past commission lowered the parking fees as parking fines as well. So that's something we could look at into increasing the parking fines. Okay. And I do remember that you're right.
They did they lowered the parking fines. Now it's better to pay a fine than to pay for parking. Yeah. No, I was opposed to that and apparently uh it was a state there were certain it is state regulations that forced us into doing that as far as the tickets and the fines that
we went to state levels. We were actually operating above state level. So I and I remembered to turn it on. I do not advocate for increasing fines, but the fines should be as painful like
is is that you want to pay the parking like if if you are going to park there the whole day, you're saying, "Well, I better pay the fine," then the the the fine is is low. So, I agree. I do have a question. Uh what are the
underlying budget assumptions for net increase in parking revenue, less expenses? So, we have not discussed the the parking increases and how we are going to use the the revenues from from those sources. I'd be happy to to discuss that in in a future meeting to see what the
commissioners want. Uh we we do know that we have the the system cap uh capacities to have a dynamic parking uh structure. Erh I I heard in one of the previous uh meetings that uh charge
let's say tomorrow or Saturdays charge a little bit more than Monday through Friday. Yes, we do have the system to do that but the budget right now assumes no rate increase for parking. The budget as it is we may bring
something in September uh based on the board that I right but for right now it doesn't have any rate increase in it. Okay. Thank you. I hope that we could have this conversation maybe the first uh the next regular schedule meeting in August and hopefully make the changes and have them
implemented for Labor Day. That's my thought. One of the things that you asked about, Commissioner Sison, is uh our expenses. Our expenses uh for the entire year have had a third employee uh in the parking
uh enforcement. we've not had that employee for the entire year. So the the expenses are probably down. But what it does mean as well is that we are missing a lot of additional revenue because we have nobody working certain days,
certain times and and mostly in the the evenings from about 5 to 7 and on through. So uh it's going to be very different. I I'd like to see and I I think that I had mentioned to Charlie our our city manager that uh we needed
to get that third person in in place because when we did do a third person for a very short period of time when Mike Munger was here the revenues in a single month had jumped almost $100,000. So that's part of it is that just that we need to get somebody in that
enforcement position and and working for us. Do we have that position budget and funded? We do. Yes. Yes, we do. And Chief Barkley, I ran into the parking uh enforcement gentleman at at the Crowder Brothers
hardware store. So, I had a good conversation with him. At the last meeting, I said we were in the middle of interviews. We are very close to making a job offer. He's just going through the background right now and we could have him on board as soon as uh the next week or two. Great. That's awesome. because that that
will start we'll see the revenue jump uh immediately. Yes. Um we keep talking about the parking fees and like I'm I'm not against raising the parking fees. I mean I think it could be a good thing for us but the problem is there's like zero plan or any
type of business plan behind this numbers are just drawn out of thin air. We're going to raise it from four to six. Where's the analysis of if we move it to six, we're going to get 90% of the Parkers, you know, and we know what that number is. What if we raise it to seven and we get 89% of the park? That would
be a better deal. But there's no analysis behind any of this. It's just it's just raise it up to six and we're gonna get 100% of the Parkers that we had at N. I I have seen nothing to back any of this up. I mean, I think it could be a good thing, but I don't Am I missing something? Yeah, we we did uh
earlier in the year in the fiscal year um we took a look at this extra person being in there and uh and seeing that you know if we're covering more hours and all seven days that it jumped up by $100,000. So even before you would put a
price increase onto that parking per hour, we're already going up about $100,000 uh per month. And so now now you get it and that's that is done. Um I'll try to pull it out. No, but you talking about enforcement or enforcement? I'm talking about I
understand you the fees will be higher as well if you take it up at an extra dollar. You're going to see even more than $100,000 because today we would get that extra $100,000 with a dollar on top of the $4 that we're charging today.
Oh yeah, I get that. But at some point we got to figure out where the break even point is on what the what the best price is like where what's the best price that gets us the most amount of revenue without losing the parking. There's like a there's like a break even point somewhere in there. Right now we don't have enough city
parking spaces to even use. So people are willing to pay 20 and $30 an hour in these private parking lots because of it's the only overflow they have when they come to the beaches, which is why they're all these vacant lots where people aren't wanting to build are are
putting parking lots because they're charging these ridiculous amounts. Um yeah, I went to park yesterday and pulled it up on my phone, Pay Mobile, and it was literally $60 for two hours. So it um if people are willing to pay
that because there's not enough parking spaces. We don't have enough parking spaces. Everybody knows parking is a shortage. So no, I don't have a spreadsheet that says it, but I do have common sense. And common sense says if we are overflowing anyway and people are
paying $20 an hour in private parking lots, they're going to pay $6 an hour or $5 an hour. Well, then I would raise it more than I raise it higher than six. I'd make it. I'm just I'm just stating a fact. The fact is people are paying these private lots $20 at minimum $20 an hour um
depending on holidays, weekends, all of that. And um so to think that we're going when we don't have enough parking spaces to begin with, to think that we're going to lose any people parking in a city parking lot, I mean, I I just I I I understand what
you're saying. have graphs and charts and and I'm just not used to like bringing stuff with no data whatsoever. I mean, just my Google AI pops up stories on parking. I don't know if you guys heard, but in Pensacola during the air show air show, some private parking lots were charging
$500 for a parking during that. But, uh, that's why I came up with a dynamic pricing idea. And west side of Golf Boulevard, you ready to strike the hammer? No, no. I'm just trying to get everybody's attention. It's obvious to me. I know
I'm new. Third day. We need to do some homework on parking. Bring you guys back some numbers at some different rates, what that would look like. Fees versus fines, all that good stuff. If you give me a couple weeks, I will bring that to you. Um, if I have it by the first meeting in August, I will bring it to
you. Not a wine maker. I just won't bring wine before it's time. Right. All right. I I'll get you something sooner than later. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you. That'd be great. Arur, if you can additionally send uh to the city manager was what's your uh
opinion is so we can incorporate that into the analysis. I will do. Thank you. And this is miscellaneous and what you see here mostly this is interest payments uh for for the bond money we have in the bank. uh but uh this uh 2025
includes the insurance proceeds. So that's why you see a big jump in 2025. So that's where the revenue is showing up. Correct. Okay. Thank you. So now we we we discuss revenues, CIP and expenses. So what what is a balanced
budget? So is a revenue should equal expenses plus reserve. Uh so as you see if every number here is positive we will have more revenues than expenses and that's called a balanced budget. So here is the the same $47 million as
presented previously and uh this is in the uses and this now this includes the carry forwards carry forward is projects mostly caps that were uh approved pre in previous years. So we are uh we didn't spend the money so we're passing it
until the commission unfund the projects or change priorities. So a total of 47 millions and here we are expecting 32 millions dollars of revenues but uh again we're carrying forward about this is an
estimate we will have a better number by the end of the year because we are still in 2025. So, uh, we're estimating the carry forward to be 70 millions. So, that make it $49 million in in revenues.
So, the $49 million in revenues minus the $47 $47 million in expenses or uses uh will add $1.8 million into a reserve. So, so this is the high level look at uh
next year's revenue and expenses. uh with with again you can hear there's a lot of uh further uh discussions that we want to have about the specifics but what you're s what you're projecting here is that we we have even without a
millage rate increase we have enough money to cover our operating expenses and our cap our current capital improvement projects. Correct. Given that we don't have another hurricane or any other disaster. Okay. All right. Good.
So now we we discussed the revenues the budget now this is the reason we are here the true image the trim so tax our value uh we went from $3.2 million to $3 million so that's a
decrease of 5.7%. Uh this is our current mileage which is 3.8129 8129 and this is the roll back rate. What is rollback rate? I'm going to explain it in the next slide for for the benefit. I'm going to leave this slide
here for a second. So so you can if you have any questions on this. Okay. Roback rate is a is a tax that will generate exactly the same revenues that we received last year. So basically every year when the tax value goes up
the rollback rate is lower. This year because the tax value went down the rollback rate is higher. Any questions about rollback rate? Okay. So this is what one millage does to our budget. So one mill represents $1 per
$1,000 of taxable value. And this is for general understanding of what what is one millage. So using our taxable value 0.1 mil represent $300,000. That that's the analysis. So what what this means that every time you increase 0.1 mil or
decrease 0.1 mil the difference in the revenues is 300,000. And these are the four options that every municipality in Florida has. So when you are adopting the millillage or tentative mill you have you can adopt the current mill
you can adopt the rollback rate which is as discussed before because the tax value is lower now the rollback rate is higher. So what rep that will represent the same amount of revenue. The current millage represent a reduction in revenues for for the city and then you
have the option to increase millage and then you have the option to decrease millage. Those are are the four options that you have. Any question on these? So any question before I recommend a motion?
I do. Um, what are the underlying budget assumptions for uh commercial redevelopment? So, I'm going to John, do you have any is John here [Music]
right now? As far as I understand, there is no budget assumptions to see an increase in the non-residential um tax base for us. Um I believe we heard and and Mike, I'm going to ask you to validate this. Generally what happens
with new construction depending on when new construction um receives their certificate of occupancy um it takes at least another tax year for that to hit our um taxable values.
So right now we don't have any anticipated commercial um development pulling their certificate of occupancies um at this point for fiscal year 2026. We may see some slight increases in
taxable value depending on some of the cos that will um possibly occur in the 2026 fiscal year due to substantial rehabilitation. Um but nothing um at this point for new construction. I just
um took a look at um the new commercial redevelopment or commercial development that's occurred um on the island. Of course, now I just left my notes over there. Um but generally the last new commercial development that came on the tax roles was um the Fusion Hotel um
back in 2019. Um since 20 um 2008 um we had in in the last 17 years including the fusion we had three other new construction commercial developments.
Um so not a lot of past activity in the world of non-residential commercial redevelopment. Yeah, that's Oceanana down this way on both sides, the Gulf and the Bay and I think a couple other properties. But uh you know in the works if we all come
together and discuss it including LPA and PNZ uh potential is the Thunderbird Beach Resort across the street where McDonald's was Gator property downtown both sides of downtown. So yeah, you know, future going forward,
absolutely tremendous redevelopment opportunities, but the quicker that we can um get plans approved, permits pulled, certificates of occupancies um received, then um we'll see more of that
non-residential tax value um add to um what we need to do for municipal services. But the bottom line is in 2026, you don't expect to see any additional I don't see sub and this is just Joan as
your economic developer. Not but not um Mr. Twitty in his office. Yeah, I don't see um tremendous uptick right now on the non-residential tax. Thunderbird Beach Resort still hasn't filed a permit to tear down that property. So
it could be 3 4 years and that's a problem. So I have the same question for residential development like number of new condos, number of new single family homes and average values for each. But yeah same thing
the important things to know that when we budget we have to be conservative. So so this affect the tax role when when the se is provided a certificate of occupancy. So right now we are budgeting conservative. I I I wish I can at some point next year say I was wrong. We are
receiving a lot of more revenues that that would not hurt my feelings. So that I think everybody would be happy about it. Thank you, Victor. And thank you for the meeting earlier today. Thank you. Thank you. Um I have one question I've been trying to find out since March when I got on
the commission here. Do you how much unrestricted unencumbered free cash do we have as a as a city? Okay. So, by September, and this is one of the of the steps that we have to take to be
able to to be ready for credit agencies and and bonding is to uh separate reser and put it aside and that includes unrestricted restricted and and all of that. I think Mike has been doing a quarterly report
on on that amount. Do you have what that number is right now? Reported it. The last time I gave a financial loss update. Yeah. I can report it back to you again next meeting. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, uh this would be a good time
to ask for a motion. I I have the motion recommendation. Okay. Oh, here. And here is the what I'm recommending. So, I left that blank there. H because this is a That's dumb
information. Bad time to stop. He's getting ready. Yeah, I would let him go ahead with the motion. Hold that. Hold up, Chief. Hold up. We're going to uh to go through with the uh the motion. Yeah. And then we can wants to give us his recommendation. So, I'm I'm I'm going to uh discuss what
what this means. So this is the motion the motion that that I need today to be able to to tell the property appraise our intention is this and this is this is what happened. So in September this is tentative. What means tentative in
September you can go all the way to the roll back rate but you cannot go below the the roll back rate unless you put it here today like let's say the commission wants to raise it and say five. So then you you can uh vote for five in in
September. Now I do believe that we have uh with with the current rate of 3.8129 we can cover the the city expenses operating personal expenses and CIP. That's that's what I what I believe. So it is for you to recommend one one
motion. So I I would say the motion and then pick the first one if you I move that we adopt the tenative millage rate for the fiscal year 2026 budget at the current year's millillage of 3.8129
mills per $1,000 of taxable value. This tentative rate is based on at least 95% of the certified taxable value and complies with Florida statute 200. Everybody has a hammer now. 200.065
including public hearing and trim notice obligations. I second. We have a motion and a second. We will open it up to public comment. Mark Hoey. Uh good afternoon, Mark Hoey, District
3, uh 2254th Avenue. So, uh good presentation, Victor. look forward to the more detailed uh dive into the actual budget, but I I don't want to jump into the future, which we are, without a little bit of
look to the past, particularly with regards to what has happened or not happened on our mil millage rate over the last 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 years. Each time
we've had this same discussion and reach a conclusion about either maintaining the millage rate or accepting or taking the option of a roll back.
Interesting. We've never rolled back. We've taken the money. We kept the millage rate, but because property values were steadily rising and in fact significantly rising the last number of
years, we took it instead of potentially taking the roll back and lowering the burden on the property owners while still having enough money to run the business. So, I I just want to put that out there. That time may come back.
Right now, I'm not up here advocating cutting expenses to run the city if we're going to do the right stuff to redevelop this town. But I just don't want the commission to forget that we
took the money. We took the increased tax revenue from property owners for years uh at a time when maybe that wasn't the the wisest thing to do, but it's the easy thing to do. and we didn't have to worry about whether we had enough to run
the run the business. So, I'll be here next year, God willing. And if indeed for 2027 we see, wow, property values have jumped up. This is great. Look at all this extra money, I'm going to be up here asking you to take the roll back
rate and give that money back to the or at least not give it back, but reduce the burden on the property owners. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Anyone else? Carlos. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and
Commissioners. Um, I'm going to just preface my comments by saying I'm not a numbers guy. You know, you know, kudos to you. It's, uh, you know, it's great job. Um, my understanding is that this roll back rate is going to be an increase in the military. Um so that's
important to I think to you know be completely clear about what we're saying that it we are planning to increase taxes. Um and I think that what Maro said it was well taken that you know in previous years when uh the u property values were increasing we never rolled
back and you I can understand that government never likes to give money back. Um um I and and I think that and you know Mark also said that you know he's not suggesting that we should cut expenses. Um, but you know, I am I I
think that we should cut expenses. I I think that we should be living within our means. Um, so anyway, I have prepared comments. I've I've given a copy to TF to uh uh share with you at some point in future and I I'll go ahead and and and give those comments at this point. I understand we're just talking
milled just not like the actual but hopefully in some future uh point we can maybe address some of these comments. Um so um first the budget uh lacks transparency. The 47.2 million in expenses and 1.8 million reserve are
clear but operations, capital outlay and debt service lack detailed breakdowns. The proposed millage rate for reduction is vague and does not provide specific rates or revenue impacts. Uh just an example, St. Pete Beach FY26 process with public hearings uh sets a
transparent standard that I think we our city should match. I urge the commission to provide detailed financials moving forward with clear millage rate options. Um second personnel costs are a major concern. Treasure Island 17.2 million
personnel budget is significantly higher than estimated budgets in St. Pete Beach which is 12 to 14 million. Madira Beach 5 to7 million and Gulfport 4 to 6 million. Despite our smaller population of 6,500, while our police force and trash
disposal crew, unlike Gulfport's contracted services add cost, an 8.1% increase to 14.3 million with 10 new hires and a 10% rise in certain liability benefits raises questions about sustainability of these
expenditures going forward. I request a detailed cost analysis. Third, significant budget variances need explanation. The finance department's contractual services jumped 315.5% from 8,000 to 33
33,240 without justification. Emergency management funding drops 99% from 2.39 million to 24.5. I'm not I'm not sure I got the right numbers there. Cutting hurricane expenses. Given the regional's hurricane
risks evident in MadiRaa Beach's focus on storm water upgrades, this could compromise preparedness. Uh would like to have these just just changes justified. Fourth, economic risks such as inflation and disasters often lack the contingency plans. St. Pete Beach
and MadiRaa Beach with estimated CIP budgets of 10 to 12 million and 5 to 7 million respectively leverage state funded resilience projects. We need similar strategies to protect our 1, sorry, 17.1 million capital improvement plan. Finally, some of the pages in the
documents that were posted on on um on the internet uh had unreadable pages and formatting errors. So, it was hard to really clearly understand. Um again, referring to St. Peach speeches um that their transparency is is I think much
better and something for us to to uh try to to match. Uh I request the commission enhance transparency, justify personnel cost disparies disparies disparities with a detailed breakdown, ensure emergency preparedness plan for economic
risk and improve document clarity. Aligning with our neighboring municipalities uh will strike a balance between a taxpayer relief and robust services. Thank you commissioners. I know that you all care about the city tremendously as as most of the residents do and we appreciate your efforts on our
behalf and would like to recommend that we continue uh working to be fiscally responsible and and remember that uh many residents there's we have many wealthy residents but we also have many residents who are not wealthy who are in economic uh straits because of the you
know disasters that we had to undergo. So I I would like to uh and I and I believe you will consider that in your whatever decisions you make in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Carlos. Sarah Perington Pennington. Hi Commission. Um, uh, first of all, I
wanted to point out, Commissioner Dicki, I appreciate your concern about the total cost of the loans. That's exactly what was going through my head when I was watching this presentation. That was a missing piece when we looked at a $12 million loan over a 15-year, 20-year, or
25 year. It only showed us what our debt service payments were, but it never showed us how much in total we would be paying for those loans. And I think that's an important consideration for us. Um uh since the hurricane, there has been a major focus on revenue because so
much needs to be rebuilt in the city. So I understand that. But um I want to point out that the situation that we're in with needing more revenue is not just because we got hit with hurricanes. The situation that we're in, in my opinion, is because we took in a whole lot of
money um a couple years ago with those increased property tax um revenue and we spent all that money and we over spent and we over spent and now we're paying the price and I think that we need to take a look at that. I think it's the
really important missing piece of the conversation. Uh when I was at the last meeting, I suggested and I'm going to ask again, how can we open up a conversation about saving money? We need to look at our expenses. Can we get
every department head in our city to come to a meeting and tell us, hey, here's where I found where we can save some money. I would imagine that there has to be some places that we can save money in our budget. Um, we need to do that and not just to be good stewards of the taxpayers's money, but also to avoid
the situation that we're in right now. As we learned, hurricanes can happen. And what if this happened again next year and we've not gotten our spending under control? We've got to get our spending under control. I think that needs to be the number one priority of our city right now. Um um definitely
that uh personnel and administrative cost I felt were very high when looking on that. And I also I emailed the city a couple weeks ago, everyone in the commission and the mayor and I said, "Wouldn't it be great if we made a goal for having the lowest property taxes in the entire state of Florida, whether
that's realistic or not, what if we made that as a goal? How differently would we be looking at our budget in this city? How differently would things be happening?" I I think we really need to step back and look at the spending. I can't say it enough. I just think that
we've got to get that under control. And I don't know how I feel like I'm just a citizen that comes up here and just talks at every meeting. But what I'm saying, does it matter to you guys? Are you taking it into account? Does it actually turn into any action in the city? I don't know. But I would love to
see that happen in in regarding to spending. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Anyone else? Mike. Mike Brady, 119504 Street East. Is a Capri and Treasure Island.
You know, we're in a tough situation here. We just came out of two hurricanes and I'm not hearing a lot of love back here for some of that. It's been difficult. We've gone through having to spend money we never anticipated having to spend.
We're also different than these other cities. Everybody tries to say we're the same. We're not. We're all different. We happen to have our own police and fire. And I want to keep our police and fire. Uh I do believe we should put a public
safety building north of the city for both the police and the fire. I don't want to separate them and I know that is going to cost us some money. It's not going to be for free, but I think we can work and try to get more grants. I I've said I think a couple times I've got up
here and I've mentioned that the Panelis County has 800 and something million dollars, but I've never heard us hear that we've ever got a penny out of that. And I think we should get something out of that. Um, we've talked about our debt
service if we did have to fund a public safety building of which we'll we've got 1.5 million. We have some politicians saying we're going to maybe in the next session get some more. And I think uh Commissioner Dicki brought up a very good slide the
other day uh couple meetings ago about what maybe the cost would be and how to fund the debt service on that. I also looked at the numbers that uh were provided for the debt service for the bonding. Um that was back in April and
it changes all the time and I think as we go into the future we're going to find the interest rates coming down. So the bonding interest rates are also going to come down and we have a way I think with Commissioner Dicki suggesting
about increasing the parking rate. And as Commissioner Vquiz said, she went to park the other day. People are paying 20 bucks an hour to park in these private lots. Why can't they pay six bucks to park in our lots? And I come out here
regularly. you can't find a place to park at four bucks an hour. So, I I'm not saying we should overspend. I don't think we should. But I do like the fact that we have a city that we have our own services. We don't depend on anybody
else. We don't depend on any private organization to provide our services other than for the recycling. And I've watched those recycling people and they pick up things that Penllis County says you can't recycle,
but you can talk them into it if you stand out there and they'll pick it up for you, you know. But, uh, I do believe we are a different city than the surrounding cities. And I'm concerned if we keep parceling out our city services,
in the long run, we're not going to get as good a service. And if we parcel them out to private companies, eventually they got to make a profit. So they're going to eventually raise the rates because they've got to make a profit. They may come in cheap in the
beginning. They may take our people on. They may take our trucks on, but at some point they're going to say, "We're not making money now. We're going to raise our rates." Whereas we pay only what the cost is. So I think all of this has to be taken in when we're looking at the
rates. And if we're keeping the millage rate where we're at now, I think one of the things you got to think about is we own a Bascule bridge over the inter coastal waterway. And I think there's only one other city in the
state of Florida that owns that and that's a cost. We've got maintenance cost and we got to provide for replacing that bridge in the future. And this past bridge, I believe, was about a $40 million expenditure, which we got from the federal government with a little
handshake on not charging any tolls. But we may need to look back and see what we can do about that. But in the future, we still got to plan for one day, I'll be long gone, thankfully, uh,
of replacing that bridge. So, these are the type of things I think that a lot of people don't take into account. They just want the cheapest millage rate around. They want to be the lowest forever. If you want to be the lowest, move to Marco Island. They're very low. You're out in the middle of nowhere, but
it's low. We're not going to probably be that way ever. We're probably not going to be the lowest in the whole beaches. It's just we're a different animal. So, that's my two cents. Appreciate your time. Thank you, Mike. Anyone else?
Seeing none, we'll close the public comment section of I have a question for Victor if I could. Uh question. Sure. Yep. Thank you. So, I might say something that's controversial. So, um it's something that Sarah brought up and
I was debating whether I should ask or not, but I think I will. Um so, say the stars align, right? and we are allowed to redevelop our commercial properties that we have, Gators, Thunderbird, uh,
downtown and say there is an increase in height and density. Um and like I said the stars line how low if if if we were to maximize you know a plan how low can we drop our
millillage you know based on the numbers of one point you know.1 mil is 300,000 and and so on like is it feasible if we had massive you know not massive that's a bad word uh if we had reconstruction
or redevelopment Is that something that's feasible in the future to lower the millage rate is always possible right I have to when discussing 2026 I have to take in consideration only 2026 expenses
and then matches the millage with with those expenses but decrease the the millage is always possible with with a better scenario in future years. I'll have to re question that re reask that question another time to phase it differently. I'll meet with you. We'll
figure it out. I'm always open uh together with the city manager to look at in our expenses and and to be a featuring more featuring. Thank you. Okay. Any other communication comments? No, I just I just wanted to say as much as I'd like to like to uh accommodate
Mark Hoe's request for a roll back rate, I don't think we're going to do it this year. So, I I I know this is not the time to do that, right, Mark? Uh anyway, just wanted to add that. All right, we have a motion and a
second. Roll call, please. Vice Mayor Vasquez, I. Commissioner Clark, I. Commissioner Sison, I. Commissioner Dicki, I. Mayor Doctor, I. Thank you. All right. And that is everything that
we have for this evening. So, we are going to adjourn.